Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective by Geisler & Feinberg

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Review
Conclusion
Bibliography

Abstract

This analytical essay presents a critical review of the book Introduction to Philosophy A Christian Perspective, which was written by Norman Geisler and Paul Feinberg. The bibliography appends one source in Turabian format.

Introduction

Christianity can stand up to the intellectual challenge mounted against it. The result of such a challenge should not be the loss of faith, but the priceless possession of a well-reasoned and mature faith.

 Norman Geisler and Paul Feinberg

The book under consideration is known as Introduction to Philosophy A Christian Perspective, which was written by two authors namely Norman Geisler and Paul Feinberg who claim to be Christian philosophers in the book. In the book, The authors all-purpose approach is to give details about a view point, put in plain words its sustaining arguments and then the criticism that have been put forward against it. Sporadically, the authors take in an unambiguously Christian viewpoint that integrates all the preceding views into one all-inclusive whole.

Review

As evident by the title of the book, Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective is exactly that. It is a Christian point of view on the study and history of philosophy and it makes an attempt to respond the questions of what philosophy is, why it should be premeditated and what its practical impact is.

The authors, Norman Geisler and Paul Feinberg, get started to show that philosophy should be appreciated in and of itself, and that Christianity can meet head-on the rigors of philosophy, and should be seen as a philosophically legitimate worldview. For that reason they embark on the task of putting forward the value of philosophy, devoid of glossing over the issues in philosophy which seem to say the opposite to Christianity.

Geisler and Feinberg have understood the fact that some of the principles and main beliefs of philosophy are adversative to Christian doctrine. Still they believe and make other also fall for the fact that this is no reason to eradicate oneself from the study of philosophy.

This is rather hypocritical. Knowing that some of the beliefs of philosophy are opposite to the beliefs of the Christian doctrine and ignoring it is just not acceptable. What has been presented in the book is that instead, as Christians, they have called to take every thought incarcerated to Christ, and said that we need to scrutinize philosophy, and to prove false its errors where and when they occur. What the authors further portray is that we then need to put forward justification for the legitimacy of the Christian worldview, founded on accepted philosophical standards.

A very critical comment about the book is that it presents Suggested Readings that go way back to the days of Plato, Kant etc. at the end of every chapter the authors provide a list of readings as suggested material, but apart from these primary sources, they have put forward suggestions of reading books that are now completely out-dated and one cannot find them even if one tries. Yet another missing point is a list of annotated bibliography which would have helped people understand the references and their points even better.

Another part which can be a bit irritating is that there are certain parts of the book and certain points made in the book by both of the authors. There are a number of points which are just not understandable by a student. For example there are a number of Norman Geislers extremely deep and hard to understand philosophies. This makes it even hard to understand the book. The book requires heavy thinking. A few places are not easy to follow because they are demanding philosophical problems without a solution.

The book under consideration is on the whole a medium level introduction to western philosophy from a conventional Christian point of view. Philosophy is just about always biased and is always done from some sort of partiality to some degree or another. Even though the book has a definite slant towards the Christian belief, it is still pretty good to start to understand philosophy for a bit. The book is good only if you are Christian and only wish to know about the philosophers of the Western world. The book should include philosophers from other times and areas. There is little information on Maimonides.

The book discusses mysticism but totally neglects Averroes, Al-Ghazali, al-Arabi, Avicenna and other Muslim philosophers. The contributions made by these philosophers definitely outweigh that of the Maimonides. Their persuasion on early European philosophers of the medieval era is marvelous. The authors have simply made an effort to examine the Greek philosophers which was heavily used by St. Thomas Aquinas and others. This failure to notice, abandoning or being ignorant of Islamic philosophy deteriorates the book (Geisler and Feinberg, 1987).

Conclusion

In the light of the above discussion we can hereby culminate that even though the book under consideration namely, Introduction to Philosophy A Christian Perspective, which was written by two authors namely Norman Geisler and Paul Feinberg presents a Christian point of view, it has somehow failed to intake other philosophers who have worked harder in the field. Also, the references are outdated and can not be taken into consideration.

Bibliography

Geisler, N and Feinberg, P. Introduction to Philosophy A Christian Perspective. United States of America. Baker Academic. Pp. 1- 447.

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Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective by Geisler & Feinberg

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